Nursery Rhymes - the horror genre of the preschool set

Today you can find me blogging at the ALSC Blog with a post titled, 

"She did what?! Nursery Rhyme Horrors"

I've opened up a discussion about using some of the more gruesome nursery rhymes in storytime.  If you'd like to weigh in on the topic, or have your own particularly horrific favorite, please click over to the ALSC Blog.

In the meantime, here's my own childhood favorite,

Ladybug, ladybug, 

fly away home.

Your house is on fire.

Your children will burn.

 Note:
I married a firefighter. ;)

Images in the Public Domain and available from Project Gutenberg.

Urgency Emergency! Easy reader fun!

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you'll know that I'm not a fan of many beginning readers.  I am constantly frustrated by the lack of consistency in the labeling of beginning readers (the difficulty variation in similarly labeled levels is maddening), and discouraged by the insistence of some adults that children must choose a particularly numbered or labeled book regardless of whether or not it appeals to him.  That's why I so seldom review beginning readers. Of late, however, I do like many of Toon Books' offerings, Holiday House's I Like to Read series, and Eve Bunting's Frog and Friends series).

Now I have another series that makes me happy because it's funny in that dry sort of way in which the Brits are so accomplished - and it's leveled (see below), but not labeled.

Urgency Emergency! Big Bad Wolf
Urgency Emergency! Itsy Bitsy Spider
Dosh Archer, 2013
Albert Whitman & Company

The Urgency Emergency! series follows Doctor Glenda, Nurse Percy, and the patients they see each day in the emergency room.  Patients are the inhabitants of fractured folktales and nursery rhymes that should be familiar to most readers.

In Itsy Bitsy Spider, Itsy has a gash on her head that requires stitches.  How did it happen? We hear the report of a bystander,

"I don't know what happened," cried Miss Muffet. "I was just walking along when I found the spider lying in a puddle of water at the bottom of the waterspout." 

And the patient relates,

"The last thing I remember is a big whoosh of water rushing toward me."

But fear not! Everything turns out fine - even the weather,

Outside the sun had come out and dried up all the rain.

Nurse Percy and Doctor Glenda are the anchor characters of the series, and the straight man and woman in this fun and silly series.

48 pages, brightly-colored illustrations and limited text on each page, many double-spread paintings
Looking for reading levels?  Here they are:

Age Levels: 5-8, Grades: Kindergarten-3
CCR-RL.K,1,3.1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9,10
RL.2.1,2,3,4,5,6,7,10

UK version, Bloomsbury
Publishing, 2009

These are new to the US, but apparently at least one was published under a different title in the UK, Choking Wolf (Urgency Emergency).

Picture Book Roundup - Silly, dreamy, fun, well-done!

Silly, dreamy, fun, well-done  - these are my favorites today!

• Silly

Harrington, Tim. 2013. This Little Piggy. New York: Harper Collins.

Funny and silly, this is the story of what those other five little piggies are doing - forget about going to market or eating roast beef; these little piggies are painting, selling hot dogs, dancing and flying planes!

Browse inside This Little Piggy.

Click to hear the author's musical rendition of 
This Little Piggy.  You can download it, too!

• Dreamy

Giovanna Zoboli. 2013. I Wish I Had .... Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.  (Ill. by Simona Mulazzani)

A simple wish list  - one wish on each beautifully illustrated, double-spread page of this over-sized book.  Inspired by the animal kingdom, each wish is for an animal's ability,

I wish I had the quick heart of a mouse as it makes its escape ...

... and the wings of a wild goose on the day it takes flight. 

Perhaps it rhymes in its original Italian version.  No matter - it's still poetic and beautiful.

The link to a preview of I Wish I Had ... may be accessed here.

• Fun

Gibbs, Edward. I Spy on the Farm. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

I loved I Spy With My Little Eye when it was published in 2011, and I love Edward Gibbs' I Spy on the Farm as well.  Perfect for participatory sharing, kids will squeal out the answers as they look through the die-cut holes and hear the clues,

I spy with my little eye ...

 something pink that begins with a P.

Oink, oink!

Colors, letters, farm animal sounds - I Spy on the Farm has it all!

I Spy on the Farm preview here.

• Well-done

Falwell, Cathryn. 2013. Rainbow Stew. New York: Lee and Low.

Whimper, sigh, cloudy, sky,
Is it too wet to play?
We don't want to stay inside
because of rain today.

Grandpa smiles and says to us,
"I know what we can do.
Let's go and find some colors
for my famous Rainbow Stew!" 

Filled with love and frolicking fun, Rainbow Stew is a tasty delight! (Be sure to try the recipe)

Rainbow Stew preview here.
Rainbow Stew activities here!


If you're looking for the usual nonfiction post this morning, check out Sally's Bookshelf for today's Nonfiction Monday roundup.  Next week, Nonfiction Monday will be right here at Shelf-employed.  

Mary and Her Little Lamb: The True Story of the Famous Nursery Rhyme - a review

Moses, Will. 2011. Mary and Her Little Lamb: The True Story of the Famous Nursery Rhyme. New York: Philomel.

Most children in America will grow up learning the rhyme or the song about Mary and her little lamb, but few will give it any serious thought. We may similarly prattle about Old King Cole, Wee Willie Winkie, or Jack Sprat, but we don't expect to know anything more about them than their propensities for pipe smoking and music, late night excursions in inappropriate clothing and a distaste for high-fat diets.

 Luckily for children, however, we can know a little more about Mary and her little lamb.  Will Moses' detailed folkart paintings (many double-spreads), are a perfect accompaniment to the true story of Mary Sawyer of Sterling, Massachusetts, circa 1810.  The pastoral images of 19th century Sterling and the simple features of the one-room schoolhouse are beautifully rendered in colorful oils. The story is somewhat lengthy, but Moses employs artistic license to add story enriching details that create a fast-paced, enjoyable read-aloud story.  Delightful in words and pictures!


Note:
Earlier this year on the KidLit Celebrates Women's History Month blog, I highlighted Laurie Halse Anderson's book, Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving. Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1879) was a fascinating woman.  Not only did she almost single-handedly create the national Thanksgiving Holiday, she was also a writer, editor and a poet.  I noted that she penned the ditty, "Mary Had a Little Lamb," which I learned from the back matter in Thank You, Sarah. However, there is apparently more to the story.  According to the afterword in Mary and Her Little Lamb, John Roulstone wrote the first stanza of the now-famous poem in the 1810s.  Sarah Hale published the poem in 1930, apparently adding three more stanzas.   Later, musician Lowell Mason, set the rhyme to music, adding the repetitive lines that we all sing today. Regardless of its evolutionary process, it's amazing that a  4-line ditty about a girl and her lamb could  so enchant the schoolhouse visitor John Roulstone, the accomplished writer Sarah Hale, and the famous musician, Lowell Mason. How much more simple life must have been in the early 1800s!  There is no end to the things one can learn from picture books.

Today's Nonfiction Monday roundup is at Geo Librarian.

Note: If you're a regular Nonfiction Monday contributor, you'll want to make note of the roundup schedule's new location.

November picture book roundup

Some new favorite picture books - short and sweet, here we go:

Wood, Audrey and Don. 2010. Piggy Pie Po. Boston: Harcourt.

Three very short, rhyming pig stories, starring the absolutely adorable, Piggy Pie Po - each with a humorous ending.

But when he's ready for the tub, to splish and splash and rub-a-dub-dub, Piggy Pie Po wears no clothes ... only bubbles, head to toes.

 Irresistible!

Raczka, Bob. 2010. Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys. Ill. by Peter H. Reynolds. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Guyku (rhymes with haiku) - illustrated haiku that features boys and things that boys like to do outdoors in each season. My favorite?

Hey, Who turned off all
the crickets?  I'm not ready
for summer to end.

 Brilliant!  Teachers should be all over this one.
Wish there were one for girls (but "Galku" just wouldn't cut it)

Fox, Mem. 2010. Let's Count Goats. Ill. by Jan Thomas.  New York: Beach Lane.

Here we see an over goat.  And this one's going under.  But can we count the crossing goats, terrified of thunder?

Mem Fox, Jan Thomas, silly goats, what's not to like? Great counting book for little ones. (You don't see the word careering very often.  Interesting choice.)

Mavor, Salley. 2010. Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Traditional nursery rhymes illustrated in "hand-sewn fabric relief collages."  Most of the rhymes are familiar - old classics including Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater, The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, and the like.  But a few may be so old as to be new,

I'm dusty Bill from Vinegar Hill.  Never had a bath and never will.

The depictions of the exquisitely detailed needlework are simply stunning.  Even a child who can't appreciate the work involved will know that this book is something special.

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